Snowflakes follow steamy Sunday

A woman uses an umbrella to keep out the snow Monday night on Michigan Avenue.

Adam Sege, Chicago Tribune

Adam Sege, Chicago Tribune

Staff report

Chicago's first snowfall of the season has arrived.

Snowflakes started falling in the city Monday night, leaving a light dusting on some surfaces.

The average date for the city's first snowfall is Oct. 30, according to the Chicago Weather Center. Last year's first flakes arrived Nov. 9.

This year's flurries came a day after Sunday's temperatures reached 70 degrees, making it the city’s warmest Veterans Day since 1964. Just as quickly, overnight temperatures Sunday plunged into the 30s as a cold rain and strong west winds sent the mercury on a steep decline, according to the Chicago Weather Center.

Many places in Iowa and western Illinois reported a changeover to snow Sunday afternoon and evening, and some parts of the Chicago area saw the season's first snowflakes overnight.

Several areas outside the city had traces of light snow overnight, said Kevin Birk, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Romeoville.

With temperatures expected to pick up later this week and stay moderate for several weeks, Birk predicted the region would see little snow through the first week in December.

On Sunday, lakefront temperatures topped out at 69, with O’Hare International Airport hitting 70 degrees at 2 p.m. — short of the record of 74 degrees set in 1964. By 6 p.m., temperatures had dropped to 54 degrees at O'Hare, and by 9 p.m. to 53 degrees at the lakefront.